Small plane damaged in Albany airport crash

A plane was damaged during a landing Dec. 15, 2018. (Brian I. Houle I.P.A./ Special to the Times Union)

COLONIE - A small airplane crashed Saturday at the Albany International Airport after part of its landing gear failed. No one was hurt.

Doug Myers, a spokesman for the airport, said the pilot was landing the 1959 Piper Pacer at 2:49 p.m. when the landing gear on the right wheel failed and the mechanism folded underneath the plane's wing.

The plane has three wheels, one under the nose and one under each of the wings. When the plane came to a stop, airport staff righted the plane with a fork lift and then pushed it by hand off the runway, Myers said.

One of the runways was closed until 4:40 p.m., Myers said. There were no diversions or delays of other flights.

The plane is locally owned and carrying a passenger in addition to the pilot. The plane is now housed at the airport. The Federal Aviation Administration will conduct an investigation, Myers said.

Leigh Hornbeck was raised in the Adirondacks and graduated from St. Michael's College in Vermont. She worked at Boston-area newspapers from 1997 to 2002, when she was hired as a staff writer at the Times Union.

After covering Saratoga County exclusively for nearly 10 years, Leigh began a new job in the Times Union's features department in February 2012 and began writing the paper's real estate blog, Places and Spaces. So far, her favorite stories to come out of the new beat have been about Willow Marsh Farm and Jennifer Guy, a mother who was inspired to become a nurse when her daughter was treated for leukemia.